An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape ed. by Carl R. Lounsbury

Abstract

60 ARRIS Volume 7 1996 question of architectural style. This problem is compounded by the simplistic division of all of the buildings considered into two basic groups: historic-style buildings and modem-style buildings. These two groups are further broken down into the realms of public and private use. Chapters seven and eight concern historic-style public and private buildings and chapters nine and ten concern modern-style public and private buildings. Within each chapter the buildings are further separated into general building type categories with a liberal applique of stylistic labels to aid the reader's understanding. Thus, while readers encounter sections labeled Single-Family Houses, Government Buildings, and Religious Buildings, they also find sections on Hotels in the Moderne Style, Hotels in Transitional Modern Style, and Contemporary Vernacular-Style Single-Family Houses. The author's approach to this material is justified by a reference to Franceso Milizia's Principi di Archittelura Civile (1781). Although Milizia (1725-1798), characterized by Hanno-Walter Kruft in A History of Architectural Theoryfrom Vitruvius to the Present as the most influential Italian architectural theorist of the late 18th century, is an important figure in the history of architectural theory, his cameo appearance in this book makes little sense and in no means justifies the author's simplistic approach to issues of style and type. The question arises, who is Patricios's intended audience? If the book is intended for a lay audience some of the above criticisms may be somewhat tempered, although the lack of narrative clarity in the first section remains a problem. However, unlike Crain's work, Patricios diligently footnoted his material and provi9ed an extensive bibliography. The book has some of the trappings of an academic scholarly work but looks more like a work intended for a general audience. Regrettably it is neither effectively one thing or the other. Lee Gray University of orth Carolina at Charlotte Carl R. Lounsbury (ed.), An Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994,xiv + 430 pp.,illus. Probably no one has become an architectural historian from a love of its language, but few have not come Lorelish this vernacular. Most revel in using it and cherish the fellowship of secret mysteries in a command of this argot. The least of the virtues of Carl Lounsbury's Illustrated Glossary of Early Southern Architecture and Landscape may be that it vivifies the fascination with architectural language, but the volume is a gem for that alone. By other standards, however, it is equally superb. Even without narrative, the Glossary shows clearly why generations of scholars and large numbers of the general public are intrigued by architecture-simply by documenting the complexity and intricacy and the sophistication of the architectural/building enterprise. In part Lounsbury has managed to do this just by the sweep of his work. Although it encompasses usages found specifically in the American South (Delaware south to Georgia and west to Kentucky and Tennessee) between about 1610 and 1830, the nearly 1500 entries comprise a comprehensive record of architectural language for the time and place. And because this vocabulary and usage developed out of English architectural traditions and is a subset of the larger and continuing American tradition, theG/ossaryilluminates the whole of Anglo-American building culture well beyond the I820s. The language of the art of building may be art itself, but architectural glossaries must be judged principally for their utility. By that criterion Lounsbury has given us a conspicuous success. Glossaries are customary appendices to architectural histories, perhaps because the readers of architectural history arc so often not scholars and specialists. Yet customary inclusion is no guarantee of usefulness. Nearly every reader will have had unsatisfactory experiences with typical back-of-the-book glossaries. indeed, no such attachment can be comprehensive enough to serve every type of reader and no author will provide sufficient depth lest the value of his text be diminished. Equally, stand-alone glossaiies and dictionaries of architectural termsclassic ones like Sturgis, recent ones like Isham, or available ones like Fleming/Honour/Pevsner-are typically out-of-date, insubstantial, error-prone, or difficult to find. Thus, this 11/ustraredGlossary is a book to...